The suits who dreamed up National Handwriting Day 40 years ago, though, couldn't possibly have anticipated what the culture would have in store.

College students today rarely write by hand, and when they do, nearly all print rather than write in cursive.

On the other hand, students who learned printing in the first grade and then began cursive writing in the second grade made the least progress in spelling.

In fact, the standards only briefly mention print handwriting, a writing style in which the individual letters of a word are unconnected, as a skill to be taught in early elementary grades.